Mass Effect is a great game that should satisfy both shooter and RPG fans with its immersive, well-crafted world.
Not unlike most RPGs, Mass Effect starts out with you customizing your character. In the game you play as Commander Shepard, known for your bravery, heroicness and such (don't worry: you'll be able to change that in the dialogue sequences). The customization system isn't as deep as, say, Saints Row 2's, but it does feel somewhat deep with a decent variety of faces to choose from (you can also have a scar and choose to be either a male or female). You do have the option to create a first name for your character, but it hardly matters because no one refers to you by it. More interestingly, you'll be able to choose from several "classes," most of which include your character harnessing special abilities, such as telekinesis. These classes also affect what type of background your character has, which may make your decisions a bit difficult.
The story itself isn't exactly 100% comprehendible. There are so many different characters and locales that it's hard to keep track of. A Spectre (an elite class of special tactics for the Citadel Council) named Saren is going across the galaxy stealing artifacts and plans on releasing the ancient Reaper race (a race of powerful creatures that's thought not to exist) on the entire galaxy. You'll mainly be going from one planet to another trying to track him down. He disappears for a good portion of the game, making the search for him feel a little less urgent, and, quite frankly, he's just not that good of a villain. The Council won't listen to you and refuses to help you on your search. Other than that, the story's nearly incomprehensible. Fortunately, the various dialogue sequences (more on these later) make the story more interesting and exciting.
Speaking of dialogue sequences, you'll encounter numerous characters to interact with them-and how you respond can actually mean life or death. But that doesn't mean you should be worried about what you say during every conversation. Unlike most other RPGs, Shepard actually has full voice while interacting with someone, making the game as a whole more immersive. Usually there will be three or four different dialogue options that resemble what you would want to say, but when you select it, Shepard responds by saying something else that means the same thing you selected but is altered considerably. Multiple dialogue options usually have the same results, making you feel like you have more variety in the dialogue than you really do. You'll be earning either paragon or renegade points, similar to a light vs. dark system, and these points are actually treated separately and affect gameplay indirectly.
Most of your time will probably be exploring the Citadel, a gargantuan-like space station. While exploration options in the Citadel aren't entirely robust, there are numerous characters to interact with and shops to buy items at. Sometime people you meet have side quests for you to do, and these add a bit of variety to the game-for a while, that is. Sometimes you won't have to travel outside of the Citadel, instead meeting or killing a person for the person who assigned the quest to you. Most of the time, however, side missions will send you across the galaxy to unknown planets. This involves you going up to the docking bay to the Normandy (your ship), select a destination on your galactic map, and land on the planet. However, it isn't nearly as big as you'd think it would be-for each system you can usually only land on one planet. There isn't much to do on these planets, and aside from the annoying thresher maws, there usually aren't any hostiles. Basically, once you've accomplished your purpose for being on a planet, there's no reason to return to it.
Each and every time you land on a planet, you're forced to drive around in a rover called the Mako. The driving mechanics for it are very poor, unfortunately. You see, the Mako moves in whatever direction the camera's pointing to, so this means that you'll be driving backwards and trying to turn around. When you move the left stick down, the camera turns around and you drive backwards similarly to driving forwards. In other words, the left stick gets inverted; think of it as driving forward while pressing the left stick down-it's impossible to drive properly!
The Mako's poor driving mechanics and the rocky planetary design don't work well together when combined. You can use an automatic turret or use the Mako's cannon against the enemy. It's extremely satisfying to blow up an entire enemy base to kingdom come and watch numerous sniper towers being crumbled. This all works fine, provided you're on the same level as your enemy. The Mako's turret apparently lacks the ability to move up or down. While you can hit enemies above you with ease, most enemy bases are below mountains. The result is that your bullets won't hit where you're aiming at, and you can't hit enemies that are extremely close to you. This problem forces you to either go in close to the well-populated enemy base (which often results in a death) or to take out the enemies by foot. Unfortunately, your squad mates might accidentally get stuck in the planet's geometry, forcing you to either restart from the last checkpoint or to go back on the Normandy and re-land on the planet.
The final issue on these planets is the appearance of thresher maws, giant worm-like beings that emerge from the ground, spew goo on you, submerge, and then reemerge somewhere else. The game doesn't check on the location of the thresher maw, so it'll sometimes emerge from directly underneath the Mako, resulting in an automatic death or being stuck in its geometry with the camera shaking frantically. This may make you want to avoid flat areas on planets to avoid these problems.
Thankfully, that's the biggest problem I have with Mass Effect. Everything else is good, such as the on-foot combat. You'll be able to have six teammates in your "collection" at one given time, two of whom can actually join you during gameplay and missions. There isn't much weapon variety- you'll wield an assault rifle, shotgun, sniper rifle, and pistol. Each weapon can be upgraded to have better ammo and such, and a helpful factor is that the guns have unlimited ammo, though they do tend to overheat.
The combat feels just like that of something like Gears of War. I have yet to use the biotic powers, so I can't comment on that. You'll have the option to select commands to give to your squad mates, though you should probably let them act on their own. There is a cover system, but it is a bit clunky because it occasionally doesn't detect that you're trying to get into cover, and I assume this is because just walking against an object allows you to cover. Friendly AI is generally quite good, but the enemy AI is a bit weird. In most battles one stupid enemy will try to rush you, which may result in you dying just because it's unexpected.
The visuals in Mass Effect are nothing short of excellent, especially for its release date. The environments are well detailed and the draw distance is especially impressive, since you'll be able to see hundreds of feet into the distance. The art design does remind me of a mix between Halo and Star Wars, which makes it seem really neat. The game uses the Unreal Engine, so it'll look similar to Gears of War with the grain feature, but there is the occasional texture pop-in during cutscenes. Character models (especially aliens such as Wrex) look fantastic, and their lips move in sync with their voices. Speaking of the character's voices, the voice acting in Mass Effect is also great. Not one of the character's voices is bad throughout the entire game, and the in-game audio is also good.
Overall, Mass Effect is a great game and RPG that should satisfy both third-person shooter and RPG fans alike. If you overlook the Mako portions of the game, what you're looking at is a fun, creative, sci-fi adventure that you won't forget any time soon.
Score - 9.8